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We must apologize or risk becoming Putin’s next target after Ukraine – Ablakwa
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu, has said immediate steps may have to be taken by government of Ghana to apologize to Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to avoid risk of becoming Putin’s next target after Ukraine.
His comment comes on the back of a statement issued by the Russian embassy in Ghana which sought to distance the country from the skyrocketing prices of food products in Ghana.
By dint of the data put out by the embassy, Russia ranked 11th among countries that Ghana imported food and other agricultural products from.
Reacting to the development in a Facebook post, Ablakwa described the government’s blame of Russia as the cause of the country’s economic downturn as provocative.
According to him, the government has mismanaged the economy which has led it to seek an International Monetary Fund programme to restore it on to a path of progress.
The legislator stressed that Ghanaians ought to appeal to Putin, distancing the country from government’s propaganda that Russia is to be blamed for the economic crunch or risk becoming a target.
“The rate at which the Akufo-Addo government keeps provoking the Russian Embassy in Accra to incessantly issue statements distancing their country from Ghana’s mismanaged IMF economy, we may have to launch a special appeal to President Putin assuring him that majority of Ghanaians do not agree with our government’s propaganda, else we risk becoming Putin’s next target after Ukraine,” Ablakwa wrote on his timeline
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
